Measurement and numerical calculation of Rubidium Rydberg Stark spectra

We report on the measurement of Stark shifted energy levels of 87Rb Rydberg atoms in static electric fields by means of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). Electric field strengths of up to 500 V cm−1, ranging beyond the classical ionization threshold, were applied using electrodes inside a glass cell with rubidium vapour. Stark maps for principal quantum numbers n = 35 and n = 70 have been obtained with high signal-to-noise ratio for comparison with results from ab initio calculations following the method described in (Zimmerman et al 1979 Phys. Rev. A 20 2251), which was originally only verified for states around n = 15. We also calculate the dipole matrix elements between low-lying states and Stark shifted Rydberg states to give a theoretical estimate of the relative strength of the EIT signal. The present work significantly extends the experimental verification of this numerical method in the range of both high principal quantum numbers and high electric fields with an accuracy of up to 2 MHz.